Lustitia Enim Planetæ
Lustitia Enim Planetæ (Shorthand is LEP) a new story by Golden Flame0. It is being written for the 2013 story writing contest, and is about the Imaginaughts trying to defeat Void Eaters on the planet LE-42. Chapter 1: Ascent Goldas stood on the mountaintop, wind blowing through his hair. The GoldenLight Blade was strapped firmly to his back. He looked down onto the ruined city, smoke billowing everywhere. He picked up his bag, and using the power of wind magic, descended onto the village. He met with Targ, standing next to a complicated-looking computer. "Targ!" Goldas shouted, landing softly on the ground. "Gold!" Targ shouted. "Have a look at this!" Goldas ran over. "What is this?" "Stats." Targ replied. "No radioactive or harmful magic fallout. Apart from a few fires George is extinguishing, the town is relatively stable." "Where are the others?" Goldas asked. "Your wife is on the watchtower, keeping guard. Nick is searching for any survivors. Tivic is trying to scavenge any leftover tech. You already know what George is doing. The rest are inside the large building behind us." "Thanks." Goldas replied, heading towards the building. When he got to the building, he saw Marcus sitting down, occupied with a roasted chicken leg between his hands. "Marcus, hey" Goldas called out. "Goldas, sup." Marcus replied, his mouth full of roasted bird. Goldas took a seat. He called over the waitress and ordered a glass of some Aefian alcoholic beverage called Blie. It was harvested from fermented Blie plants, and was very sweet, yet low in alcoholic content. A general joke is that you had to internally down yourself before you had to stop driving. Goldas tested the theory with a machine. It was false. You would have to fill a small swimming pool worth of the stuff before you had to stop driving for the day. "So. Hows the rescue efforts on LE-42?" "So far, so good." Marcus replied. "Twelve survivors. Twenty three found dead. And this is only this first town." Goldas received his drink. He took a sip. "How long have you been here?" "About 2 days, local time." Marcus replied. "Its only the handfull of us." "Where is Varral?" "Chatting up the other barmaid." Marcus laughed. He was interrupted with a loud slapping noise. A red-faced Varral walked out. "You look well." Goldas smirked. "Shut up." Varral replied. Goldas used his powers to pluck the memory from his mind and display it on a laptop found on the table. He looked at it for a second, and slowly closed it. Marcus, who was also watching, grabbed the closed device and re-opened it. "Really?" Goldas asked. "I slipped." Varral said with a pouty face. Goldas sent a thought to Marcus. It went along the lines of "Yeah right". Marcus was too busy watching the video to give it any real notice. He winced as the barmaid's hand connected with Varral's face. "I might go help George or something." Goldas said, and ran out, barely containing his laughter. Goldas met up with George and summoned a bucket full of icecubes. George used it to extinguish yet another house. "How are things?" Goldas asked. "Quite good." George replied. "This is my 50th house today." "How much magic are you using?" "As little as I can. We brought over a handful of mana bleeders, so this place should be energy-rich by about tomorrow. Should." "What do you mean by should?" "I think Void Eaters may be profiteering from this." Goldas clenched his teeth. "Cripes." "There might be a supressor in that stone house over there." George pointed to a very elaborate stone structure. "Ill get right on it." Goldas replied. Chapter 2: Magical warfare Goldas walked over to the stone structure. It looked impressive. Pebbles seemed to be making up the lower wall, but gaps in the cobbled wall revealed massive blocks of a lighter stone. The same stone went further up the wall, past the pebbled area, all the way up to what seemed like a penthouse, with a 360 degree glass window. Goldas could feel the drain of the suppressor. He used magic to leap up to the glass layer, and through the window. Once he landed, he looked around. It was completely empty. Goldas pulled the GoldenLight blade from his back and readied it. Slowly, he descended the stairs at the back of the room. He found nothing, so he kept going down to the ground layer, finding nothing each time. Goldas slowly lowerd his sword. There was nothing in this building, yet he could feel it. Goldas looked down, raised his fist and punched through the floor. He landed on top of the massive red machine draining mana supply. Goldas slid down from the top onto the ground. With but a second's thought he took out the Goldenlight Blade and completely distroyed the machine. He felt a surge of power. It was real. "Targ, Tivic" Goldas said, touching his ear. A HUD popped up. "Mana supressor down." "Gotcha" Targ said, still working on surveying the system. "But a few blips are popping up. Im sending you and George to the Town bank" "Ok. You have the data. You know what to do." Goldas replied. "Ill touch base with you afterwards." "Godspeed." Targ replied. The two brothers met up in front of the bank. Gold coins were spread all over the street. "Sara-domin." George breathed. "Whats going on here?" "Explosion." Goldas said, noting the massive hole in the front of the building. The two went in, and saw that the vault's walls were black. Gems and precious metal littered the building. There were some bodies, some charred, others mutilated, some with no external damage. Goldas looked around in disgust, then picked up a flawless diamond as big as his fist, in a brilliant cut. George whistled. "Who in their right mind would leave that behind?" George exclaimed, taking the gem. "Its Aefian. You can tell by the small bit of sparse white mist in the little, in the shape of a triangle. I probably made it myself." George rotated the diamond, to see that the diamond indeed had a hardly noticeable triangle. "Personally, I think any coin or gem looted had an origin on this planet, and the Aefian ones were left behind." "Why avoid Aefian ones? And how can we prove that. Look, this one is native gold." "We may be working against Eaters here. You remember the G wars." "A grudge? Still?" George questioned. "After the last, what, three wars?" "I know well that trifecta of wars." Goldas replied. "It was not a good time to be king." "I could tell. You feel that pull?" George said, gesturing to the door. "Yes" he replied, drawing the GL blade. George grabbed is claws from his belt, put them on, and made the blades slide out of the main casing. They readied their weapons, and slowly advanced towards the back door. Goldas waved at the air in front of the door, making it burst open explosively, splintering into a thousand pieces. Behind was a bunch of red-robed people with spears and lumps of C4. "Great." George said, rolling his eyes. He leaped up onto the wall above the door, digging his claws into the stone. Goldas threw down a gliph that looked like a piece of meat, and the four men slowly crept forward. George lept down behindthem, slashing up all of them. They had not time to scream. He wiped the blood off his gi. "This will take a while to clean out" George grimaced. "You can just clean it now, you realise" Goldas said, sheathing his sword. "Nah. It makes the fabric hard." He smiled, retracting the claws back into its holder. "I dont like wearing a peice of wood." "You really need to work on that" Goldas replied. "We learnt that when we were five." "You were five point five." George smiled. "Saving the school took half a year of my schooling. Oh well." Goldas laughed. "In all seriousness, we should check out that back area." George said, suddenly serious. Goldas nodded and readied his hands. George extended the claws again. They walked into the back room to see a table. The table was uniformly cubular, exactly one metre cubed, draped in grey cloth. On the middle was an imbedded gold ring. Inside the ring was black. And around the table was also black. Another Void Eater stood behind the table, bazooka pointed at the brothers. "Stop....or I will shoot!" The Eater yelled. "Shut up." Goldas said. "What are you doing here?" "I said, sto..." His threat was cut off as a bolt of magic ripped his spine from his body. The bazzooka fell into the ring and disappeared. "Holy shit!" George said. "Its a black hole!" "Let me deal with this." Goldas said. He took out the GoldenLight blade and held it over the ring. With a mechanical noise it extended, and he placed it uver the top of the ring. Suddenly the darkness was pulled into the sword, until all that was left was a table with a hole in it. He picked up the blade and slashed it over the body of the dead Void Eater, and a massive burst of light disintergrated him. "Thats that." Goldas said, as the GL blade clicked itself back together. He put it onto his back. "Lets head back to camp." George said. "We better report this." Chapter 3 - Plans "It was a WHAT?" Vain yelled, quickly standing up. "Black hole." Goldas said. "They were planning to engulf the planet." "Why distroy the planet?" Tivic asked. "Corestone would be one plus. Nobody will be able to get it inside a singularity." Nick replied. "Yeah....but distory a planet to get rid of the corestone?" Tivic asked. "Bit like blowing up a beach to smash up a continent." "It is rather ridiculous." Targ remarked. "Unless there was something of value here." "I wager some sort of magic device." Varral added. "And if there is one BH table, there are probably more." "We might want to start in the city." Varralia smiled. "Lets not have a final battle in the capital." "No use trying that." Goldas replied. "It would take us weeks to get into the city. By then they could have activated any number of those tables. Its a gamble we can't afford, knowing we are facing extremists with an unknown number of very powerful weapons." "By that logic, any second now this place could go to hell." Tivic said. "Therefore, we need a large-scale operation to prevent any damage, plus get the VE off this rock, as well as find whatever they want, and get it to Aef, in the intrests of public safety." "Doughnuts!" Rhyler said, walking in. Rhyler's striped hair and cat ears made him the strangest looking of the bunch, after Tivic. Vain grabbed one and took a bite. He gagged. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" Vain asked, shouting "Sardine." Rhyler said. "I finally figured out how to transplant fish into batter. But in all seriousness" he said, throwing the plate of seafood doughnuts out the window, "I think I've come across something." "Yes..?" Goldas asked, turning his hand in a circular motion to imply for him to go on. "I was talking with Marcus earlier. Turns out, when Aefian espionage agents infiltrated the capital of this planet, there were 7 royal staves surrounding the throne. I deducted that from the mana engery coming from the gems on top, that they must somehow act as a key. Two years later, the staves were scattered across the country. None were here, explaining why they attacked the bank, and were still looking by the time you killed them. Im guessing they have a kind of, superweapon, designed to do something. And thats when the trail ran cold." "Right. So we find these staves, unlock the vault, as well as destroy the tables, and then get the superweapon." George said, jumping to his feet. "Right. Lets move." Goldas said, also standing. Chapter 4 - The Staves "So, what exactly is this 'Silver Staff'?" Vain asked. "Its the first of the keystaves." Targ replied, as the two were walking along. "Didn't Rhyler give you the background info?" "No....Yes..." Vain sulked. "I didn't really read it." "He sent it to you via email as well." "Thank god." Vain exhaled. They went over a hill to find a brilliant city....filled with smoke and screams. A bullet flew past Targ's ear. "We...are too late.." Targ said, downtrodden. Meanwhile.... "Bronze staff. Huh." Tivic said, staring at the portable screen. "Yeah. It has a fire-ey residue around it." Rhyler replied. He held up a bronze ball, about the size of a tennis ball. "Bronze has that sort of colour." "I guess so..." Tivic replied. They were heading across a desert in a hovercar. They eventually reached a sandstone town, with people walking around, minding their own business. "Hello!" Rhyler called out. Some people turned their heads to look at the travelers, others just kept going. A man on horseback dressed in gold and purple wnet out to meet them. "Hello." The man said. "Are you from the Aefian Government?" The two looked at each other. "Yeah...sorta" Rhyler replied. "You are under arrest." he said, pulling two handcuffs from his saddlebag. In another area Goldas and Varralia crossed the river into a swampy area. It was the furthest away from the others, exactly why the monarchs wanted to go that way. "Uggh. Swamps." Varralia said, wiping mud from her gilded armor. "I know what you mean." Goldas replied, also wiping mud from his black armor. "But we are close." "You nearly got decapitated by a crocodile!" "It wasn't a croc, it was a croc-like....animal." "Potaeto Potahto" Varralia replied. "When are we gonna get there?" "Soon." Goldas smiled. "In fact, just down that waterfall over there." "Waterfall?" Varralia gasped. "More like sludgefall, but anyway." "That's even worse!!" "Don't kid yourself." Goldas replied, rubbing his cheeks. "Its good for the skin." "The stuff I use...I use it only once a month, and it doesn't have E.coli in it." Goldas laughed. "Come on, we can just hover down there." Meanwhile, back with Targ and Vain Targ was running around extinguishing fires (something you would think might be quite difficult while wearing heavy armor, but this is Aefin armor we are talking about) while Vain was killing the Void Eaters running around. They managed to find themselves in the town square, where the mayor (a kindly old man) was tied to a box-like thing. A silver metal rod imbedded with thousands of blue diamonds was lying, neglected, in the dust at his feet. "Surrender!" The Eater yelled. "And we will spare his life!" "How can we trust you?!" Targ yelled back. "You have a point..." The cultist said softly to himself, and raised the hammer to smash the Black Hole table. But before he could bring it down, he found a massive spike of obsidian skicking out of his chest. He fell over, and the other Eaters watche in horror as Vain lived up to his title. It wasn't long before there were 3 massive black poles sticking out form the centre of the square became a new feature to the ruined town. Vain broundt down his hand and deactivated the table, then smashed it to bits with the hammer. "T-t-t-thankyou..." The mayor said, as Targ cut his bonds. "No problem." Vain said. "My name is Vain Vezu. I am here from the Aefian Blue House to take this staff." He picked up the silver staff. "Why?" The mayor asked, slightly more serious. "We beleive that the same people who ransakced your town want this." Targ replied. "For reasons relating to the location of a supposed WMD." "WMD?" the mayor asked. "Weapon of Mass Destruction." Targ informed. "Nukes, chemical weapons, biological weapons." Vain said. "Oh, I see." The mayor said. He handed Targ the dust-covered staff. "Do with it as you will." Back at the sand village "On what charge?" Tivic asked. His fingers were seeming to grow and squish together. "Supporting an opposing faction with intent on destroying the great ones." The guard said, seeming to wince at every word. "Void eaters?!" Rhyler asked, pulling out a plasma gun. SUddenly a red shape appeared by the guard. The guard and his horse teleported away, while 3 red-robed Void Eaters appeared. Rhyler ran though thegroup, shooting one in the face as he did so. Tivics hands morphed into sword blades, and he decapitated the other two. Two more appeared behind him, so an extra arm appeared on hs back and shot spikes into their chests. As more and more came in, Tivic's transformations became more and more ridiculous, in order to destroy as many as possible. FInally he gave up and turned into a helicopter with lots of missile launchers. Void Eaters were being blown up left and right. One got onboard and promptly got his head squashed by a mini-train that came out of a seat. Tivic began flying away, searching for Rhyler. "Hah. I love the ridiculous." Tivic laughed in a helicopter-ey voice. Rhyler, meanwhile, was runnign through the city, shooting left and right. He was trying to get his comlink working, but doing poorly. A guard appeared in front of him, and was shot in the foot, and promptly fell into a fire pit. Rhyler kept running until he found himself in a computer room. He barricaded the doors with an empty computer case and began looking at the computer. It was running a similar OS to one he found a while ago, but this computer was far more powerful. He opened the massive side panel to see at least a few core parts contained Aefian parts. Which meant the command line was similar to the computers on Aef. Rhyler smiled as he grabbed a small device that fit into a UASB 4.7 (Universal Aefian Serial Bus, just like a USB) port, and within seconds he had access to admin rights. Within another two seconds he had access to all security cameras. And another five seconds after that, he gained control of some guard robots as well as some turrets. "Right. Have a little taste of my power, Void Eaters!" Rhyler said under his breath and input the line: turret>true kill>true target>Void_Eaters. Suddenly screams could be heard form the corridor. A thin tendril came through the keyhole, removed the computer case and opened the door. Tivic walked through, holding the blood-covered Bronze staff. "Rhyler, we really should head back before more people die." Tivic said, looking at the command line on the computer. More bullets could be heard. "Right....ok." Rhyler said, taking out the device. "Can you even turn it off without your hacking thing?" Tivic asked, with a hint of a smile. "Oh well." Rhyler laughed. Chapter 5: Trouble in Tree Town. Varralia approached the front of the city, right in front of a large group of Void Eaters. Her Dragoon wasn't loaded, but she had a trick up her sleeve. "Stop, vile one!" One of the Void eaters yelled. "I am not vile!" Varralia shouted back. One of the Void Eaters fell over. "Prove it and fight me!" The Eater yelled back. Varralia realised he was the leader. She also saw that as soon as she drew her weapon, she would be shot at. A smile played on her lips. "Well then, come forward, nameless bastard!" She yelled back. The leader suddenly loked quite angry. "My name is Malifor, wench, and I will send my champion to deal with you!" A burly looking cultist stepped forward and charged towards Varralia. He fell over halfway, arrow sticking out of his head. No-one saw the bow slide from a notch in her armor, no-one saw the arrow being materialised by magic, no-one saw it being pulled back, and no-one saw it being shot directly into the head of her foe. It was just too fast. All they saw, was suddenly Varralia had her arms and the bow in a way that suggested she shot the arrow. "Ha!" Malifor shouted, slightly spooked. "A Bow, perfect for a girl like you." "Im also good with a shotgun." Varralia whispered behind his ear, just seconds before there was a hole in his chest. The leaders last throughts were spent wondering how she managed to cover twenty meters in a matter of seconds. The Eaters all walked backwards in shock from the shotgun-wielding Aefian... ...Right into the magical tripwire Goldas had set up. "Really, Goldas?" Varralia asked, wiping blood from her face. "What?" Goldas said, jumping down from one of the ruined walls. "Dont you like expoding heads?" "Not when I'm surrounded with them!" The queen replied. "So many decapitated Void Eater bodies. Its almost magical." "You are the General and a King of their enemy. Of course you like seeing them dead." "You are the queen of the same country!" Goldas said, putting his hands up. "You....have a point." Varralia replied. "And besides, you look good in red." Goldas laughed. "I do too." she said, looking at her blood-covered armor. Then she looked up. "This is not a normal conversation between husband and wife." Goldas laughed. "True that." At the capital of LE-42 George and Nick walked up the stairs to the Shining palace, the seat of power for half the planet. The other half was split into 52 small countries, each with its own government. They went into the throne room and knelt before the King. "Where is His Majesty Goldas Arenian, Chosen of Gods, Holder of the ultimate power, and King of Aef and all its territories?" The King asked. "Out." Nick replied. "We are two people from the Blue House of Aef to talk with his royal Majesty." "I am George Arenian, Imaginaught, Captain of the Aefian Army and the brother of aforementioned King Goldas. This is Nick Myme, Imaginaught, Grim leader, among other ranks." George said. "My greetings to the two of you." The King said. "As you may know, I am King Cain Serataia the fifty-second, King of the planet you know as LE-42, and we know as Starhaven." The Imaginaughts bowed. "Good, now that we have the lengthy formalities out of the way, I assume you have the e-mail?" Nick asked. "Yes, we are greatful for your help. My advisors are telling me we should declare war on these Void Eaters." Cain replied. "Your advisors are being obvious. Im surprised you haven't done it already." Nick commented. "They first came here on peaceful terms. But now..." "They never had the intention of being peaceful. You have a superweapon, they want it." George cut in. "Im calling the press." Cain said, pressing a button. In a jungle A black man was sitting on a moving Aefian Tank. But when I say black, I mean literally black (well, more like dark gray, but). The shade of cool-looking computer. And we know this person as F10. Marcus Arenian came up form the hatch. "Ten. We will be there soon." The apple bounced off the hatch-cap-thing. "Dont call me ten." F10 replies, in his slightly metallic voice. "F10 is a bit of a mouthful" Marcus replied. "No it isnt. F-ten." "You ok?" Marcus asked, sitting down next to the data construct. "Yeah. Im fine." F10 replied. "The gas masks are in the tank, right?" "Yeah....why?" Marcus asked. "Safety check." "What else do you want me to check?" "Medkits, guns, spare ammo, the nuclear missile..." "Bread, eggs, milk, squick." Marcus replied. "What is a 'squick'?" F10 asked. "Its a cross between 'squee' and 'ick'." Marcus smiled. "Its when you say a long sentence and put something dramatically out of place at the end." "Did you make that up?" "No. I saw some website on Earth had it." "Right. So why are we here?" "We are looking for the Titanium Staff. Its silver with obsidian gems." F10 stood up. With a flick of his wrist Crash materialised into his hand. The sparks seemed to have flew off his back. "Got that idea from Goldas." F10 smirked. "Im aware. Look, we're here!" The tank got to the top of the hill to find a massive crater. Several tiny cities were nestled in the middle of it. The biggest one was a campsite, with the red flags of Void Eaters. Suddenly, a group of people came up. Before either Marcus or F10 could say a word, they fell over, dead. One of them had the titianium staff. A massive 'crack' noise emenated from the camp, and the tents flew away to reveal a small black hole. "Oh.....shit......" Marcus breathed. Back in the town with Varralia and Goldas Varralia and goldas were tied to a large cristaline pole, which in the centre had the Golden Staff, wich was adorned with a natural Emerald formation. "Great." Goldas sighed. "So close and yet so far." "This is not going to be easy..." Varalia said. She was smiling. "The King and Queen of Dammed Aef. Welcome to our humble town!" A Void eater captain shouted. The audience laughed and jeered. "Is this how you normally treat your guests?" Goldas asked. "We don't get Aefian dignitaries often." the captain shouted back. "Nor mass muderers. "You have three seconds to take that back." Goldas muttered. "What was that? You want me to take that back?" The captain sneered. "Two..." Varralia warned. "Never, bitch." The captain yelled, throwing a tomato at Varralia. It froze in mid air, to astonished gasps. "You just crossed a line. Nobody dehumaises my wife." Goldas' eyes turned bright yellow, and the ropes melted. For the void eaters, this horrifying experience was to be their last, as they were all frozen, and one by one, were killed. And forced to watch. The Guard captain was last. He saw the horror. The screams that penetrated his very soul. "Why don't you go to hell?" he wimpered. "I had defeated its king." "Goldas." Varralia said suddenly to the blood-covered king. "Its Marcus. The Eaters detonated a table." Both the captain and Goldas blanched. "Kill me, please..." The captain whispered. "Later." Goldas said. He smashed the pillar and retrieved the staff. Varralia and Goldas flew into the air, leaving behind the whimpering of the captain of the squadron. Chapter 6: Time bomb. "Just....keep...running..." Marcus panted as he and F10 ran away from the crater. The white lines on F10's body turned a shade of green, which alerted everyone else that they all were in danger. "What...is....with...your....stripes?!" Marcus asked. "They change colours relevant to the amount of danger im in. This is level 1." "What...the...heck....is...level....two....then?!" "Yellow. Then Red, purple, black. White is 0." "Oh....good....to....kno-OH SHIT" Suddenly the two of them were picked up by a large piece of concrete hidden under the dirt. They were flying towards the now-massive black hole. Then Marcus was startled again as Goldas landed on the block of concrete. "Where is Varralia?" F10 asked. "Back at camp with the gold staff. Now, about this black hole." Goldas picked up a container which had a silver fluid floating inside the middle. "What the heck is that?" Marcus exclaimed. "Anti-iron. Its enough to blow up a small planet." Goldas replied. "That much anti-''hydrogen'' is enough to blow up a small planet!" Marcus yelled. "Why would you need that much?!" F10 pointed to the black hole. "Oh." Marcus said. "Right." "Stand back." Goldas said. Marcus walked to the back of the concrete slab. F10's stripes turned yellow. "Three.....two...one...!" Goldas yelled, as he threw the container. The container's glass shattered a second before it hit the black hole. Marcus woke up in the infirmary back at camp. The four staffs were placed rather haphazardly at the back of the room. Vain was sitting in a chair nearby. "Oh good. You're up." Vain said. "What happened?" Marcus moaned, rubbing his head. "The explosion created a bit of a vaccum, from the A-Iron detonating. The air was sucked up and turned into energy. Then all the area that was sucked up by the black hole flew back into place at fifteen times the speed of light." "The area still ok?" He asked. "Its mostly mush and dust now. People were puree-d, rocks were smashed up, buildings became unrecogniseable, not only as their status as buildings, but as wood and stone." "So, the planks of wood...?" "Sawdust." "Marcus?" Varralia called from the hallway. "Varralia. Good to see you." Marcus replied. "How are you?" Varralia asked. "Yeah, good." Marcus replied. Then he tried lifting his left arm. It didn't budge. It was there, though. "Problem?" Vain asked. "I cant feel or move my left arm...." "Nerve damage. You go into surgery tomorrow." Vain replied. "Craaaaap." Marcus groaned, and slumped back onto his bed. "Hello Vain." Varralia sad to Vain. "Varralia." Vain replied. "Beautiful as always." "Thankyou." "Right." "Vain...." Varralia started "Its ok." Vain said shortly. "Vain, what was your last name?" Marcus asked. "Vezu. I adopted Varralia's maiden name, remember?" "Before that." Vain suddenly looked very hurt. He suddenly got a haunted look in his eyes from the years before his training. It cleared up quickly. "I cant remember." he said. "What was your name legally, then?" "I forgot it by the time I got the new last name. Trust me, I've tried to find my birth certificate. But Aef was a little more convoluted at that time, remember?" "No. I was born after Aef was united." "I remember" Varralia said. Her son and brother turned to her. "It was a lot different. Peace meetings, news of forign countries on our own planet, not knowing if your own could survive a couple hundred more years. All that changed when Goldas took the throne. He united the last of the planet. Vain helped take down some of the last groups of anti-unified groups on the planet. This is when you were born, Marcus." "When did I take that jar of potion?" Marcus asked. "About one and a half years later. I still remember the hospital trip." "Yeah...." "Right. You better get some rest." Vain said. Before Marcus could object, he and Varralia left the room. They had set up camp in the Aefian town they first set down in. One of the buildings was owned by a business man, and it was undamaged enough for Goldas to set up his drawing room. He pondered over a plan on the table. 3D holograms flittered around the room, each detailing something important. One had an exact diagram of the nerve damage on Marcus' arm. Another had a brief on each of the Imaginaughts condition. George walked in. "You ok?" George asked. Goldas sat down. "Could be better." "Problem?" George asked. "Yes. We are about to erupt in another war." "Aef doesn't have to get involved.." "Or the Void Eaters will wrestle control of the planet! We cannot afford it!" "So..." "That means more dead. Do you remeber the Aefian forces death count for the God wars?!" George looked down. "Over ten times the population of Earth." "And the Antitech war?!!" Goldas said, tears forming in his eyes. "7 Billion. Same as Earth." "And the Aef-Hell war?!" Goldas wiped his face. "Thirty-five Billion." George sighed. "16 times the population of Earth, gone in a short expanse of time. 112 Billion people, under Aef's rule. Dead." Goldas stood up. "That cant be right!" George said. "We recovered about half of that!" "Still! Over 100 billion families with lost ones. Over one hundered million planets with a substantial death toll. Five wiped out altogether. I cannot allow another war!" Goldas yelled, smashing the table with his fist. "And yet Earth took no notice." George sighed, picking up a table leg. "Modern humans are naive little fools. They are blind to the conflict that went across half the universe." "Goldas, calm down!" "Why should I!" "Because nobody functions well like this!" George exclaimed. "Do you want to fight me, brother!?" The snowflake symbol appeared on Goldas' back. The two stared at each other for about 2 minutes. Then George sat down on a nearby couch. Goldas mimicked on the opposite couch. A piece of data floated between them. War had been declared by Starhaven. The other nations had all been taken over by Void Eater forces. "Like the Earth Cold War." George remarked. Two halves of the same planet. Except its a different planet, and the stakes are higher." Then he stopped. "What?" Goldas asked. "The cold war was filled with spies. They hold one of the staves. Starbound can easily revoer the rest. But we can send someone in to grab the final staff, then use the superweapon to blow our opponents into oblivion. Your edict as a god prevents open conflict between any of the combatants, so only natives will die." A wicked smile appeared on Goldas' face. "So your saying we send in an agent to recover it?" "I'll go get Marcus." "He has nerve damage. No way is he going to do this sucessfully." Goldas stood up. "Let me handle this." Chapter 7: Espionage. Goldas crouched in the Aefian stealth hovercraft flying at the same hight a normal aeroplane would. TO BE CONTINUED Category:Stories Category:Story Contest 2013